Lord Robert Winston delivers Science lecture at Bedales

The annual science lecture at Bedales welcomed Lord Robert Winston to the school this year for a talk entitled ‘Can we survive in the 21st century’. Members of the school and local community were joined in the Quad by pupils from other schools.
 
PETERSFIELD, U.K. - April 26, 2013 - PRLog -- The annual science lecture at Bedales welcomed Lord Robert Winston to the school this year for a talk entitled ‘Can we survive in the 21st century’. Members of the school and local community were joined in a packed school Quad by pupils from Pilgrims, Windlesham House, Highfield, Amesbury, Churcher’s College and Portsmouth High School.

Commenting on the lecture, Bedales 6.1(lower sixth) student Daniel Rasbash said: “Lord Robert Winston spoke charismatically and passionately about the relationship between humans and technology. We were privileged to enjoy dinner with Lord Winston at the Headmaster’s house and have a discussion with him about biology, music and Imperial College. With his reams of experience, the lecture was punctuated with various comedic, interesting or chilling anecdotes, all of which eventually tied in to the main theme of humans and technology. Time flew by and the audience left feeling very informed, with an insatiable hunger to learn more.”

Headmaster of Bedales Schools, Keith Budge, added: “Inspirational talks from thought-leaders across a range of academic disciplines are an integral part of the school’s intellectual life and create invaluable opportunities to pose questions on areas of study to enhance understanding and further interest in topics outside the classroom. The Eckersley Lectures provide an excellent platform for engaging in scientific debate and celebrating the school’s academic heritage.”

Intended to stimulate an interest and appreciation of science, the ‘Eckersley Lecture’ has become an event of note in the school’s calendar having been established in 1966 in memory of two Bedalians, the late Thomas and Peter Eckersley, for outstanding contributions to scientific progress and thinking. Ever since Professor Sir Lawrence Bragg, Nobel prize winner at the age of 25, gave the first Eckersley Lecture nearly 50 years ago, the school has attracted leading Science thinkers including two Nobel prize winners, three life peers, three Directors of the Royal Institution, eight presenters of the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures and ten Knights and Dames.

Thomas Eckersley left Bedales in 1904 with an interest in mathematics and went on to read engineering at University College London and later mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge.  His career led him to the role of Chief Scientific Adviser for the Marconi Wireless Telegraphy Company and his work achieved fellowships with the Royal Society, the Royal Astronomical Society and the Royal Institute of Radio Engineers. He was also awarded the Faraday Medal for Work on the Propagation of Electro-Magnetic Waves.

After leaving Bedales in 1911, Peter Eckersley led a very successful career in radio broadcasting and later became the BBC’s first Chief Engineer when it was formed in 1922. His interest in radio was evident while at Bedales when he and his friend Robert Best began experiments in the emerging field of radio transmission and set-up their very own broadcasting station called ‘Wavy Lodge’ within the school grounds. This was probably the first school broadcasting station to be invented.

This year’s Eckersley Lecture was one of a number of science themed events in the Bedales School calendar. Earlier in the year, Block 4 students (Year 10) enjoyed science lectures in Oxford by Steve Jones FRS, Richard Dawkins and Lord Winston, where topics ranged from nuclear fusion to stem cell research. Other recent activities have included visits to CERN (the particle physics research centre in Geneva), the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (Oxford) and a Neuroscience seminar at Southampton University.
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